The French just broke their old conventional train speed record at 574.8km/h (357.2 mph). I love this stuff; this is exactly the kind of cool stuff human engineering is capable of. (BTW the Japanese still have the record for a maglev train at 581 km/h (361 mph)).

I hear that in Tokyo, in Ueno, for example, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom already, but here in Nagoya, they are just starting out. This weekend, we had a big thunderstorm, so hopefully not too much has been washed away, but the blossoms have just started. On Friday before I went to work I went over to Meijo Koen and took a few pictures on the way and in the park itself:

I particularly like this picture, because it shows a contrast between two wildly different views of Japan: a pachinko parlor and cherry blossoms.

I hope to take a lot more cherry blossom pictures this year in the next few weeks…

On Saturday, a friend from San Francisco, Jeff, visited me in Nagoya. Even though he was here for only about 10 hours and the weather was rainy at times, we did a lot. We visited Midland Square, the new megabucks tower next to Nagoya Station, ate three kinds of Nagoya specialties, visited the Robot Museum, and went down to Nagoya Port and the Italian Village and some some turtles.
Thanks for stopping by, Jeff! Come again soon.

Here’s a video from a Japanese band called kimono called “Japanese Policeman”. As it says on the site I got this from, 3yen, it actually has nothing to do with kimono, Japan, or policemen, although they do display the kanji for policeman (警官) for a couple seconds. It does remind me how much I really used to be into Icelandic pop music, though, and how it’s kind of amazing how such good stuff can come out of a tiny community of around 300,000 people.

So, they just changed the tunes they play on all the subway lines last week. I don’t know what the reason is, but they’re much less comforting than they used to be. sigh Here’s how it sounds on my way to work:

Get the Flash Player to see this player. http://kingofusagoestojapan.com/music/trains/200703meijosenhidarimawari.mp3

And here’s how it sounds coming home. Maybe, if enough people complain, they’ll change it back?

Get the Flash Player to see this player. http://kingofusagoestojapan.com/music/trains/200703meijosenmigimawari.mp3

  

Saturday night, one of my students, Mr. Manabu Kondo (近藤学さん) took me and one of my fellow teachers out in honor of my birthday. Now, this wasn’t the fanciest sushi place in Nagoya, but it was spectacular. And it was doubtless some of the best sushi I’ve ever had in my life. Especially noteworthy is the zukemaguro (the deep red one in the picture on the left), tuna marinated in soy sauce. He even bought us a fantastic bottle of champagne. Heavenly is not sufficiently strong enough a term to describe this meal. Thanks so very much, Manabu-san!

Well, last weekend I started to seek the blooming flowers, and they weren’t too hard to find. In Meijo Koen （名城公園）I was already able to find maybe four different kinds of flowers. I honestly can’t tell the difference between ume (plum) and sakura (cherry) blossoms, but my best guess is that all of these pictures are plum except for the last one.

This past weekend, my coworkers and many students came out for my birthday. Here are photos. Great food, drinks, and karaoke! Perfect. Thanks all for coming! BTW, this was my third party on or near my birthday, with one more coming. I am very lucky to have so many friends!

Today is my birthday. Every year it’s different (obviously). I reflect on how things have changed since the last birthday, and what I’ll be doing on the next one. Next year, I better be on my way to a decent (much higher-paying) job here in Japan.

Anyway, today I got just a few emails from people congratulating me, and pretty much, that’s all I need these days. Thanks all! I am having a happy birthday. Karaoke won’t be until next weekend though :D

This is a great site, where these two guys Ben and Nate are taking a gastronomic tour of Asia. They’ve already done Japan and Korea, and they’ve already tried a few things I haven’t yet, like whale and that raw chicken. It will be interesting to see how the food in the rest of Asia compares to what they’ve already had in Japan and Korea.